<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>The Last Five Years by kvgehina</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26081041">The Last Five Years</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/kvgehina/pseuds/kvgehina'>kvgehina</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Haikyuu!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, But mostly angst, Fluff, Inspired by The Last Five Years, Karasuno Volleyball Club - Freeform, M/M, Smut, Sorry Not Sorry, but brief and not crazy descriptive, it just fits them too well and i like hurting my own heart, it's literally the movie plot im not claiming to have made up this plot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 03:01:24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,072</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26081041</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/kvgehina/pseuds/kvgehina</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Tobio was ready to move on. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Shouyou couldn’t even bring himself to drop the paper. It was near ripping, but he couldn’t let it go. This wasn’t what he wanted, wasn’t how things were supposed to be, wasn’t right. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>It didn’t matter what he wanted, though.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hinata Shouyou &amp; Kageyama Tobio, Hinata Shouyou &amp; Kozume Kenma, Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio, Hinata Shouyou/Kozume Kenma, Kageyama Tobio &amp; Oikawa Tooru, Kageyama Tobio/Oikawa Tooru</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Last Five Years</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>hey this is kind of important !!! </p>
<p>ur gonna have no clue what's going on during this fic if you don't have some idea of wtf is happening with the structure lmao i barely know what's happening</p>
<p>the pov swaps every chapter between one character who shows the relationship from end to beginning, and one who shows it beginning to end.</p>
<p>kageyama's perspective shows the relationship forwards, hinata's shows it backwards, and they alternate chapters</p>
<p>i'll address anything confusing/vague in author notes</p>
<p>thanks for reading!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tobio was gone. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Shouyou leaned back until he felt his spine hit the warm tile of his shower, then he let himself sink until he was curled up pathetically, just outside the hot spray of water. The letter, gripped weakly in his hands, was near illegible at this point. Ink ran off in cruel, refreshing veins, but some words were still legible. Nothing could soothe where the contents of the letter were seared into his skull, but watching them disappear was somehow cathartic; there went <em>compromise</em>, there went <em>cracks</em> and <em>rescue</em> and <em>love</em> and <em>that</em> <em>name- </em>one he dared not read again. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Tobio was ready to move on. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Shouyou couldn’t even bring himself to drop the paper. It was near ripping, but he couldn’t let it go. This wasn’t what he wanted, wasn’t how things were supposed to be, wasn’t <em> right.  </em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>It didn’t matter what he wanted, though.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Tobio decided they were beyond fixing, and that was that. Not another counseling session, not another mini-vacation to destress, not another night to themselves. Shouyou couldn’t save the fight with an apology and a hopeful smile. The piercing eyes softening in his gaze, the sigh as shoulders dropped, the nimble fingers mussing his hair and promising more time together next week- he would never feel them again. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Yet as empty as he felt, he still couldn’t shake the overwhelming sense of Tobio’s presence. This wasn’t <em> his </em> apartment, it was <em> theirs. </em> He was in <em> their </em> shower in <em> their </em> bathroom outside of <em> their </em> bedroom in <em> their </em> home <em> . </em> It didn’t matter that most of Shouyou’s time there was spent alone. It didn’t matter that he’d found the letter on Tobio’s desk in Tobio’s office. It was <em> theirs </em> , goddammit, the whole relationship was <em> theirs </em> and Tobio didn’t care.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In fact, Tobio was probably taking the night off, drinking with friends and talking of novels and plans for the future. Shouyou wondered, venomously, how long it had been since his name had been brought up in one of those conversations. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>He wondered where the crack started. Was it his summers back in Sendai? Was it the first book deal for the great Kageyama Tobio? Had he ever meant what Tobio vowed he did?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The letter was nothing but a few damp scraps in his hands, the rest washed down the drain bitterly quick. He finally let the few pathetic pieces between his fingers fall limp to the floor of the shower and watched as it stuck, briefly, then floated off to join itself in the pipes. Suddenly the space he took up felt very much too small and the heat around him felt very much too big, or maybe it was just that his shampoo smelled far too much like something he never wanted to smell again. For reasons he couldn’t handle deciphering at that moment, he decided he couldn’t stay there any longer and quickly got dry and dressed. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Maybe he was a creature of habit. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Maybe that was wishful thinking. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>He’d slipped on soft flannel pants that fit far better than the pajamas he’d been wearing for the past five years, then clipped on his slim, silver watch without missing a beat. Somehow, it floored him. His ring was long gone; they’d pawned them both as part of the settlement. He hadn’t dealt with the stereotypical divorcee’s longing and nostalgia over an old wedding band. But this watch, this sleek little timepiece with its cruel little hands counting out unfeeling little seconds as if they had any right to keep moving forward in a time like this- it floored him. He just stared, heart falling in time with the ticks as he thought back longingly to the night Tobio gave it to him. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>It had been a long time since a space they shared felt that much like home.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Shouyou longed for those days. Somewhere along the line something had gone wrong; something had shifted, something had <em> broken </em>, but he was sure that it was simply something out of place and it would be an easy fix and if Tobio would just let him back in his life he could make it all better and then nothing would feel how it did and he wouldn’t have watched the love of his life walk out the door with a suitcase and he would still be in love with someone who loved him back.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He was sure that if Tobio would have just let them try one more time he could have made it all better.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>What right did he have to ruin what they had? </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Tobio was sure it wasn’t his fault. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>How could it not be, though? Shouyou was always there for him, was always waiting for a chance to be with the grand novelist Kageyama, was always apologizing and seeking to heal their problems, was always <em> trying </em>while Tobio was just off publishing books like it was nothing.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Tobio was sure the blame wasn’t his, though. And as it had been for the last five years, Tobio was right because Tobio made the call.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He had no idea how anybody could look at what they had and see nothing worth fighting for.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It didn’t matter, though. It had never mattered. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Finally pulling himself from his transfixion on the watch face, Shouyou tried to feel bitter. He tried to be angry. He wanted to hate Kageyama Tobio with everything in him and throw the wretched little watch right out the fucking window. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>All he felt, though, was cold.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The silver felt icy against his skin as he finally mustered the will to undo the little clasp. He shut his eyes as he pulled it off his wrist, knowing he wouldn’t be able to keep away from it if his eyes happened to catch the little engraving inside- <em> So long as I’m here, you’ll be the strongest.  </em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>He certainly couldn’t argue that he was feeling very strong right then. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Numb, he covered the watch in his fist and pulled open drawers until he found one useless enough to serve a purpose. He rooted around among his old practice uniforms from various teams until he hit the jagged wood at the bottom, then buried it there and shut the drawer before he could change his mind. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>He hated how bare his wrist felt. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>As he lay awake that night, five words danced in his vision, taunting him from their safe, calculated, unbothered distance.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> God, I loved you so. </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> -T </em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>sometimes i just wanna watch the world burn</p>
<p>thank you!!! so much !!! for reading all the way to down here it means so much to me</p>
<p>maybe drop a comment or some kudos if ur excited to see how their whole world went to shit ?? </p>
<p>my tumblr is @kagehinv if you want to see posts when i update or just wanna come chat!</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>